The 1.3 billion people of China will be tickled to learn that Giants outfielder Nate Schierholtz was in a lot of pain last week.

When Schierholtz slammed into Chinese catcher Yang Yang during an Olympic preliminary game in Beijing last summer, he enraged one-fifth of the world's population, which even a lousy diplomat would be challenged to do with a single act.

Their sweet revenge came Thursday night, when Schierholtz finally went to the dentist to get a crown for a tooth he had chipped when he crashed into Yang. The dentist discovered exposed nerves and had to do an emergency root canal.

"I'm feeling the aftershocks now," Schierholtz said Friday morning, still subdued after an evening of Novocain - nine shots in all.

Compared with Beijing, life seems more mundane for the 25-year-old San Ramon Valley High graduate. He is sitting pretty in the Giants' clubhouse, expected to assume a major role in the outfield this year as a possible prelude to becoming the starting right fielder in 2010.

Schierholtz owns a bronze medal from the Games and plans to carry it from city to city, worried about theft if he does not keep it close. Nobody, though, can steal the memories of the two weeks he spent in China on a trip he was not sure he wanted to take because it cost him several weeks in the majors.

"I urged him," said Winn, who played in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. "I said, 'Hey, it's something you might not ever have a chance to do again. I had a great time playing for my country. It's something you'd really enjoy.' When he came back, I asked him about it and he said it was awesome. You could tell by the smile on his face he had an unbelievable time."

Schierholtz met President George W. Bush. He sat aside (but did not party with) swimmer Michael Phelps in the Olympic Village dining hall. He met Kobe Bryant and LeBron James at the Opening Ceremonies, marveled at the sheer breadth of humanity in Beijing, the smog that masked the sun for an entire week and the delicacies he dared not eat.

"The food is definitely not P.F. Chang's and Panda Express," he said. "I don't know how I'd survive out there if I had to eat. If it's alive, a lot of the time it's available to eat. They had everything from seahorses to beetles. It was too much for me."

Mostly, Schierholtz enjoyed the camaraderie of a team that had little time to train before the Games yet emerged with a medal.

"After we lost to Cuba in the semifinals we were crushed," he said. "We were pretty disappointed. But when we beat Japan, it was still special to bring home a medal and stand up on the podium. I wouldn't trade the bronze medal for anything. I'm still proud of what we did."

En route to the medal, the Americans beat China 9-1, better known as the day Schierholtz became a marked man in the world's most populous nation.

The teams were getting chippy. Several American hitters had been plunked when Matt LaPorta, a Cleveland Indians outfielder, knocked China's starting catcher out of the game in the fifth inning in a home-plate collision. Schierholtz got drilled leading off the sixth and, with his team up 4-0, came barreling home on a sacrifice fly.

As Schierholtz reached the plate, he thrust his 6-foot-2, 215-pound frame into Yang. In photographs of the collision, Yang looks as though he challenged a freight train and lost. Giants catcher Steve Holm can sympathize.

"Look at him," Holm said, pointing toward Schierholtz in the clubhouse. "He's a monster. I wouldn't want him running into me."

The Chinese team was furious. When Yang homered in the ninth inning for China's only run, he ran the bases with his fist thrust skyward in a defiant gesture. From that moment, Schierholtz said, he understood the "commotion" he caused.

"The next few days after that I had a couple of people in China approach me, females, actually, and say, 'You know the whole country hates you,' " he said. "It was kind of funny."

Some viewed Schierholtz's hit as dirty, but he still defends what he called a "spur-of-the-moment thing" fueled by emotions from the game and the desire to win a gold medal and the accompanying $25,000-per-player prize.

"I don't regret it at all," he said. "The play was actually closer than people thought it was. The problem is, other countries play the game differently. They don't play with any kind of contact. As far as American baseball goes, at that time of the game, that big of a lead, you never know what can happen, especially in the Olympics."

With the fury quieted, Schierholtz is prepared to shift his focus toward cementing his Giants job and protecting his 31 good teeth.